Racist Torbay Herald Express and the Anti-Austerity March 18.7.15

The Torbay Herald Express used to be a local daily newspaper covering the Brixham, Paignton and Torquay area, but due to falling circulation, it recently shrank its printed publications to just one edition a week. Like many supposedly ‘local’ papers, the Herald Express is in fact owned by the very same notorious far-rightwing national news corporation that owns the Daily Telegraph. As a consequence, even a cursory glance through the pages of the Torbay Herald Express reveals that its ‘news’ content is far from being ‘local’, impartial or even factually correct. This should not be surprising, as like its Daily Telegraph over-lord, the Herald Express ardently pursues a thoroughly conservative and far-right political agenda hidden behind the pretentious platitudes of ‘freedom of speech’, (a legal right that British citizens – unlike their US cousins – do not actually possess in UK law), and ‘democracy’ (when its anti-intellectual agenda limits the scope of thinking within the minds of its regular readers). Make no mistake, like any fascist organisation supporting the far-rightwing of British politics, there is nothing ‘free’ or ‘democratic’ about what the Herald Express does. Its primary aim is to keep the majority working class in Torbay disempowered politically and intellectually, whilst ensuring that at the very least, a rightwing conservative or liberal democrat MP is returned to parliament, by the minority of middle class voters in the borough who bother to exercise their right to vote. Adrian Sanders, for instance, the previous libdem MP for the area, refused to help a disabled couple who had been thrown-out of the now closed Picasso’s Café in Union Square (because one was in a wheelchair), despite the fact that they had written to him and asked for help on the telephone. Sanders did nothing in this case, which is not surprising as his voting record reveals that he supported every single welfare and social services cut, and every privatisation drive to abolish the NHS. The Herald Express fully supported this rightwing abhorration with ample interviews and photo sessions. The now unemployed Sanders is going about the borough bemoaning his plight, as now he is truly experiencing the austerity Britain that he directly helped to create. But I digress. The new Tory incumbent (undoubtedly a free mason), currently holds the reins of power in the area. This has put the final stamp on the Torbay Council’s ongoing war on the disabled, the young, the elderly, ethnic minorities, the low paid, the vulnerable and the poor – discriminative actions all questionably backed by the Herald Express, a paper that until a few years ago, had an editor who was from Northern Ireland and an avid supporter of the now more or less now defunked racist British National Party (BNP). The so-called ‘Loyalists’ of Northern Ireland have long been bed-fellows of the UK far-right, and exudes just as much race-hate and aggression. This editor was quietly ‘retired’ when the Herald Express came under national scrutiny for its biased reporting and far-right political support.

Within its printed pages, the Herald Express as to be seen to toe the legal line, but it saves its far-right vitriol for its so-called ‘Comments’ section of its online editions. These ‘comments’ are obviously anti-intellectual and are designed to induce ‘fear’ and ‘terror’ in the minds of the average reader. Anyone with any sense would avoid this cess-pit of backwardness, but many in the Torbay area are unwittingly drawn to these pages under the mistaken notion that the comments contained therein, are somehow representative of a) local opinion, and b) rationality and reason. The truth is that like many other supporters of the far-right in the UK press, the Torbay Herald Express hires one or two people who ‘comment’ under various (and bogus) logins, to write the must vile, hate-filled, and generally despicable comments that are designed to support Toryism and the far-right political movement that emanates from it. However, the local police – who usually would support this rightwing bias in the area – gave permission for the march to go ahead on the 18th of July, not because they have any leftwing leanings (far from it), but because this Tory administration (and its previous libdem lapdogs), have inflicted such vicious cuts on the police service (and individual police officers), that the powers that be in the police gave the ‘green light’ for the march. This maybe viewed as slightly ironic, as the local Green Party took a major had in organising the march. The irony, of course, is that this march came only months after the Greens were more or less wiped-out at the polls, prompting the Green Leader – Natalie Bennett – to announce in the national press that the Greens were now reading to work with UKIP. The Green Party, wherever they have had elected local councillors, have always voted in favour of austerity and welfare cuts. Although the Torbay march was ostensibly about ‘anti-austerity’ (which contradicts manifest Green Party policy to date), the real reason may well have been to demonstrate the Green Party’s new political alliance with the racist UKIP. This can be easily confirmed by the fact that the Torbay anti-austerity march has gone down in history as the ONLY anti-austerity protest ever to have occurred in the UK, which included a deliberately ‘invited’ member of the far-right (in the form of a local UKIP representative from nearby Newton Abbot). This illogicality, of course, borders on insanity, as their fascist economic plans involve the disempowerment of the ordinary mass of citizens, and the further enrichment of a small social elite – presumably in the case of UKIP – Nigel Farage and his ragtag band of social outcasts, sex offenders, ex-convicts, fraudsters, kidnappers and murderers. The insanity of both the National and local Green Party has a lot to answer for.

However, the racism of UKIP and the Green Party aside, (I have written elsewhere about this), we were able to short-circuit the far-right love-in that the Herald Express has in the area, by turning-up with our Red Flag and representing the truly leftwing politics that has given rise to, and sustained the anti-austerity movement across the length and breadth of the UK. It is the far-right supporting people of Torbay that are out of step with the rest of the country (and with history). The insularity of the place has produced centuries of apathy in the minds of the majority of primarily good local people, as they are continuously abused and oppressed by the local government and its media. The Red Flag of Socialism was flown proudly throughout the 8.29 miles of the march from Brixham to Torquay. We travelled from London to be on this march and were proud to walk with the brave 300 – but we were not proud of the UKIP presence, or the fact that no one supported our call to have him expelled. I personally regret the fact this UKIP individual was photographing and filming my three year old daughter and uploading the images onto the net – and despite telling one of the March organisers – Mr Nick Slater – about what was happening, he did nothing. Indeed, after he March, Mr Nick Slater and his Green Party friends unleashed a vicious racially motivated attack on my British born Chinese partner, and my three year old daughter. They also viciously attacked by ailing father – Moses Waveman – because he dared to confront their racism and discrimination. Of course, the far-right Herald Express has ignored this in their printed pages – but have carried on, and encouraged the racist attacks on my family through their online editions and the ‘Comments’ sections of their website. However, one thing that can be eternally relied upon is the fact that the far-right is terminally stupid. Whilst racially attacking my family – for some strange and bizarre reason – the far-right Torbay Herald Express published photographs of the March and in virtually everyone are images of us – and of myself proudly holding up the Red Flag in Brixham!